Catching an intruder on your boat

[Poignard]

In some areas yes and you certainly need to know where the bad areas are as some tourists have discovered the hard way.

The first USA port I went to was Newark, New Jersey.

A charming place, about which Wikipedia says:

'In 1996, TIME Magazine ranked Newark "The Most Dangerous City in the Nation." By 2007, however, the city recorded a total of 99 homicides for the year, representing a significant drop from the record of 161 murders set in 1981. The number of murders in 2008 dropped to 65, a decline of 30% from the previous year and the lowest in the city since 2002 when there were also 65 murders.'

We were advised to go ashore by taxi only. From there we went to Chicago and then back to Rotterdam, where I got mugged.

 

[Robin]

The first USA port I went to was Newark, New Jersey.

A charming place, about which Wikipedia says:

'In 1996, TIME Magazine ranked Newark "The Most Dangerous City in the Nation." By 2007, however, the city recorded a total of 99 homicides for the year, representing a significant drop from the record of 161 murders set in 1981. The number of murders in 2008 dropped to 65, a decline of 30% from the previous year and the lowest in the city since 2002 when there were also 65 murders.'

We were advised to go ashore by taxi only. From there we went to Chicago and then back to Rotterdam, where I got mugged.

When I was traveling the USA on business I mentioned to a customer in Washington DC that I also frequently visited Ireland and he said wasn't I afraid with all the bombings and shootings. I pointed out that Washington had more murders in a month than Ireland did in a year and that I had even heard gunshots from my hotel room the night before, so exactly which was the most dangerous! As he rightly said, nearly all the problems were confined to 'bad' areas, but then that was pretty well true also in Ireland.

 

[OldBawley]

Winter 2000-2001, Canal Du Midi near Beziers. The “ Jonge hendrik “, a beautiful 19 m tjalk is moored at the canal bank. Getting dark, a car stops next to the boat, doors are slamming. The owner and his wife, an old couple here banging on the door. “Open or we shoot” they open and are forced to produce money and value. Gun to the head.
That is what the couple told us. The four men ware not even wearing masks.
From then on I always moored on the canal bank opposit of the towing path. No way they are going to swim or walk true kilometres of wet bushes. Oh no, they rob someone else.
The ones that robed and attacked us on Rhodes did swim.

 

[simon barefoot]

As much as I want to post a really macho reply 'Oh, I'd cut their legs off and feed them to the sharks'........
REMEMBER...... most of your stuff is, or should be, insured. Let it go, make sure you and your loved ones are safe. It's not worth getting into a fight. Just try and get a good description...

 

[Robin]

It rather depends on whether or not your particular boarding in the night scrotes have read the advice that dead men tell no tales. That is what begs the question, should you be proactive or submissive and groveling? You have 3 seconds to decide and your time starts NOW!

 

[Rum_Pirate]

It rather depends on whether or not your particular boarding in the night scrotes have read the advice that dead men tell no tales. That is what begs the question, should you be proactive or submissive and groveling? You have 3 seconds to decide and your time starts NOW!

If you have the overwhelming advantage then 'proactive'.

If they are armed and you are not then 'submissive and groveling', but look for means of escape.


EG

A St. Rose resident managed to turn the tables on a group of four armed intruders Monday, wrestling a gun from one of them and sending two to the hospital, according to St. Charles Parish authorities. One man was arrested, while another remains hospitalized.

John Jackson Jr., 19, of 495 Fourth St. in St. Rose, was arrested Dec. 26 and booked with aggravated burglary and armed robbery.

Authorities have issued a warrant for the arrest of Kenneth Nelson of 640 Mockingbird Lane, in St. Rose, who remained at Louisiana University Hospital in intensive care following surgery.

Two other suspects remain at large, authorities say.

According to Sgt. Dwayne LaGrange, St. Charles Sheriff's Office spokesman, Jackson, Nelson and two other men allegedly forced their way into the home of a St. Rose man on Monday about 11:25 p.m. and demanded money.

The homeowner, however, managed to wrestle a gun away from one of the intruders and fired, striking both Jackson and Nelson, LaGrange said.

All four men fled.

A short time later, deputies found the two wounded men in a car in front of Jackson's home on Fourth Street, where they were being tended to by relatives.

LaGrange said the investigation is ongoing and that more arrests are expected.

http://www.nola.com/crime/index.ssf/2011/12/st_rose_resident_fends_off_4_a.html

 

[Stemar]

That Noonsite link has some interesting - and some harebrained - ideas. One of the more interesting, maybe even practical, ones is to hook up the guard wires to an electric fence energiser, earthed to the 'oggin.

I've no idea if it would work, or if it's legal, but with some of them running for weeks off a few D cells, it could be a useful deterrent on a swinging mooring.

Thoughts anyone?

 

[westernman]

That Noonsite link has some interesting - and some harebrained - ideas. One of the more interesting, maybe even practical, ones is to hook up the guard wires to an electric fence energiser, earthed to the 'oggin.

I've no idea if it would work, or if it's legal, but with some of them running for weeks off a few D cells, it could be a useful deterrent on a swinging mooring.

Thoughts anyone?

I cannot see why it would not work. I don't see why it would be illegal. It won't do anybody any harm, they are scattered all over the countryside anyway.

It won't stop anybody determined of course.

Be careful when getting up in the night for a pee over the rail

 

[Poignard]

That Noonsite link has some interesting - and some harebrained - ideas. One of the more interesting, maybe even practical, ones is to hook up the guard wires to an electric fence energiser, earthed to the 'oggin.

Good idea - cow pats make a horrible mess on one's decks.

 

[Stemar]

It won't stop anybody determined of course.

It might if I hook up one designed for 6v to my domestic battery...

 

[Robin]

Plod that came after our boat break in warned me quite seriously that I would be in trouble if I left a line with fish hooks in it wound around the companion way handrails such that an intruder was injured.

The law or rather the current wimpy interpretation of it in favour of the wrongdoers rather than their victims in the UK sucks. I was similarly warned for something I said I might do to the asbo applicants that I chased off one night last year had I (in between two hip replacements and on crutches) actually caught them. SWMBO was similarly ticked off for calling plod on 999, who didn't turn up anyway for nearly an hour and then only after calling back to see what kind of incident it was so 'they could send the right response unit'. I think they either had to fill in a health and safety form first or they wanted to wait until was safe for them to come. Pussies.

 

[prv]

I cannot see why it would not work.

Since guardrails aren't generally designed to be insulated, I'd be wondering where else the current was going.

Pete

 

[Stemar]

Since guardrails aren't generally designed to be insulated, I'd be wondering where else the current was going.

Pete

Mine are bolted to a GRP boat at least 18" from the sea. That sounds like reasonable insulation. I suspect that it would be better than a porcelain insulator an inch across in the rain.

OTOH, I'd need to be a bit careful about the hook in the saloon that uses one of the bolts to hold itself up

 

[prv]

Mine are bolted to a GRP boat at least 18" from the sea.

So the pulpit doesn't touch the stemhead fitting anywhere, then? No anchor or mooring chain ever touches it? No conductive link to the forestay?

Rails and stanchions don't make contact with the shrouds anywhere? Perhaps via a stowed spinnaker pole? There aren't that many wire halyards around today so I guess clipping one onto the rail for stowage won't happen.

How about the stern rails? Near the backstay? Got electrical gubbins mounted to them? How about a swimming ladder?

You may well be right that your guardrails are insulated from everything, but it's clear that one would need to carefully check before wiring them up.

Pete

 

[Billjratt]

For a long time I have been thinking about fitting a car ignition coil (old fashioned type) wired to where the seagulls like to squit, but now I'm tempted to broaden the application...
It is to be energised by a simple circuit activated by a sensor. (thus limiting standby current consumption) and could deliver a warning 'jab' followed by increasingly frequent pulses if the sensors did not detect a retreat.
If the sensor is only able to be triggered once the intruder has truly penetrated (legal definition?) the 'standard' defences, surely any resultant damage to him/her could be deemed to be their own responsiblilty? Do we need "you have been warned" notices?

Once a person has infringed anothers human rights, they should consider theirs forfeit.

But, if the guardrails are used, falling from a boat into the water or pontoon edge, or worse, from the height of a boat on the hard, could result in too much comeback - so I don't recommend deterrents placed too near the gunwhale .

 

[Hamma]

Plod that came after our boat break in warned me quite seriously that I would be in trouble if I left a line with fish hooks in it wound around the companion way handrails such that an intruder was injured.

I wonder about this... it comes up a lot in discussion of this type. I don't doubt for an instant that the cops told you this, but I wonder how much trouble you really would be in?

I guess there probably is some possibility that you could be sued for negligence by someone you injured - and I suppose that a sufficiently zealous cop and liberal CPS lawyer might be bothered to make a case against you - but what would happen to you?

If you wired up a sawn-off shotgun such that it triggered and shot any intruder in the chest as they came down the companionway, then I can see them getting a bit hot under the collar.

If you put fish hooks in the rail and a waterborne police officer impales herself as she is climbing aboard to frap your halyards - I can see them 'doing' you.

But a burglar, equiped to steal, who gets out to your boat and then gets a fish hook stuck in his hand? I think you'd be unlucky to get prosecuted for that - and to sue you the person concerned would have to go to a solicitor and come up with a reason for boarding your boat and then they'd have to raise legal aid, or pay, or strike a no-win deal with the lawyers. It seems unlikely.

I'd be surprised if anything happened to you - so long as you didn't do what you in fact did do - and tell the cops your plans! Once you've told them, they can't very well do nothing in case someone is subsequently injured.

I don't know if the law is unfairly tilted in the direction of the criminal because the cops are the the first arbiters of whether something is illegal and they're a bit Judge Dread about it. Anyone 'breaking the law' is liable to be arrested irrespective of motivation or provocation. Courts don't always agree with them though.

Just because a cop says it is illegal doesn't make it so - much as many of them would love that to be the case.

 

[SailorBill]

But, if the guardrails are used, falling from a boat into the water or pontoon edge, or worse, from the height of a boat on the hard, could result in too much comeback - so I don't recommend deterrents placed too near the gunwhale .

Knowing some scrote had fallen into the water wouldn't cause me to lose too much sleep. Anyway, they must have slipped

 

[PhillM]

slighty off topic but after 2 garage break ins, my wife decided that the best security for our home was 2 pet dogs ..... one is a White Alsation and the other a Black Collie Alsation cross. Some of our neigbours get knock adn run and other teenage hi-jinks .... but strangly not us.

Scaled down, I wonder if a guard Westie would have the same effect on board?

 

[Nostrodamus]

I don't know if the law is unfairly tilted in the direction of the criminal because the cops are the the first arbiters of whether something is illegal and they're a bit Judge Dread about it. Anyone 'breaking the law' is liable to be arrested irrespective of motivation or provocation. Courts don't always agree with them though.

Just because a cop says it is illegal doesn't make it so - much as many of them would love that to be the case.

As an ex cop I an say there is always discretion and 99.9% of police officers would rather help you get out of trouble if you had done something for good reasons but hopefully they would advise you of possible problems ie border force or forigne customs getting onto your boat for legal checks. I don't think they or other innocent people would be too happy with some solutions mentioned here.
Then again.... Border force, electric shock, fish hooks... no, no don't go here

 

[Robin]

My fish hooks in a line idea was for them to be wound around the companionway handrails which on the boat concerned were INSIDE the boat and would only be a problem to someone who had broken into the boat. At least if an intruder was pricked he might leave a bloody fingerprint or two.

It is sad, flippant comments apart, that it is us innocents who are more scared about getting into trouble than are the scotes who would rape and pillage. Funny old world.